Blood Talons
by Lixie Lorn
Summary: About an OC character, a general in the Steel Talons. Featuring him spying on Nod, helping beat up CABAL, albeit not much, and just being all round awesome. Titans rule, Predators suck. T for language, and maybe sexual references, but that's all.
1. Chapter 1: Four

_Yes, it's Fee with another new fic that was written when he should be doing coursework/working on other stories!_

_This one is based in the Command and Conquer series, between Tiberium Sun-Firestorm and Tiberium Wars._

Disclaimer-I do not own the C&C franchise. Shame that.

**Blood Talons**

Chapter 1-Four

The table was mostly empty, apart from four people. Important people. The four prominent Nod Generals from this area, sitting around the strategy table of the largest base in the area.

One of the four generals was a GDI agent.

"GDI have discovered the base's location." said one of them. He was bald, with a cybernetic eye glinting red in the darkness, a black scorpion just visible carved into the lens. His other eye was a piercing blue, looking like it could go right through you. He wore a black Nod uniform, edged in red, like all of the people around the table.

That man was Andrei Soirov, the famous Blue Scorpion who once defeated a GDI division with a single squadron of stealth fighters.

"What do you propose we do about it?" asked another. He was black haired, and one of his hands was a mechanical gripping device, a kind of mechanical claw. Sharp green eyes stared accusingly from his young face out at the older man. He had a lighter uniform, that of a general fighting amongst his men.

This man was Andrew Smiths, the Claw of Kane who had orchestrated a pincer assault claiming the lives of some of GDI's most foremost scientists and soldiers.

"Simple. They can't find our exact location, and they'll be obliterated by the Laser defence grids." said the third. He was brown haired, brown eyed too, and was known to have extensive cybernetic enhancements in his stomach and blood systems after a stray missile round had blown out half his chest. He wore a Nod uniform too, one of their piloting suits, adapted to make best use of his cybernetics.

This was Adam Stones, the Blade of Nod, whose tank assaults had once bypassed an ant-armour defence grid, destroyed a GDI command post and left, staying out of range by metres for every second of the assault.

"And if they get past that, the troops need some more training anyway." said the only woman at the table. She had brown hair and green eyes, and a sarcastic smirk on her face, and a nod uniform in black and blue, with the tiniest amounts of red. One hand was totally silver, a relic from the day she joined nod, head and arm badly damaged and requiring severe cybernetic repair returning it to total normalcy, if not better.

This was Bethany Lyons, the Red Serpent. Once deployed as part of a commando team to take out a leading GDI general, her squad had been compromised and slain. Despite total lack of resources and information, she infiltrated the enemy stronghold, killed her target and captured an Orca to return home. The single mention of her name and dedication, her loyalty and single-mindedness caused some generals on both sides to shrink back in fear.

The four generals smiled. Andrei at the ferocity of the other generals, Andrew at the thought of leading his men into the struggle, Adam at the thought of recovering the technology from this particular battle, and Bethany… just because she did, whenever bloodshed was coming.

She was like that.

* * *

"General, are you sure about this?" asked the GDI captain. "Is this information accurate?"  
"Of course." said the general, an older man with a golden-brown moustache. "I trust our agent with our lives.  
"Our?" asked the captain.

"Yes. I'm coming."  
"Sir, you know that this raid is practically a suicide attack, right? You've seen how many defences they have, there's no way we can penetrate them. This mission is purely a cover to provide the agent time to escape, so we can hit the explosives depot in the centre with an Ion strike." said the Captain, exasperated.

The general smiled.  
"Then we'll have to hope our agent surpasses himself, won't we. The Steel Talons don't take suicide missions. We make them."

* * *

_The next day_

* * *

"Andrew?" asked Andrei. "Do we have reports on defence readiness?"  
"Power at one-hundred percent, all obelisks fully operational, laser turrets at ninety percent efficiency, tick-tank crews ready, laser fence grid powered down and ready. Stealth Generators functioning perfectly. Not even a ripple from a thousand feet up." said the general.  
"Adam? Our vehicles?" asked the superior general.  
"Stealth vehicles operational, attack cycles ready, buggies armed and loaded." said the pilot expert.  
"Bethany, our troops?" asked Andrei again.  
"Ready to die for their cause, as am I." she said.  
"Then begin." he said.

* * *

_Well? Interested? I hope so.  
Battle next chapter, though I'm not sure how that will turn out. The real question… next chapter you'll find out who the agent is. Can you guess? leave me your guess in a review…_


	2. Chapter 2: Escape

…_hey. Hope someone's reading this… ah well. If you are, enjoy. If not, screw you.  
(And for you to read that, you have to be reading it, so you cannot take offence. Nya.) Remember-One of the four generals is a GDI agent. Which one?_

_Thank you Thorn for reviewing. What would i do without you? (Glomps)_

Disclaimer-I own nothing. Well… that's a lie.

For this, I shall use flashbacks in _italics._

**Blood Talons  
**Chapter 2-Escape

"Are you sure about this, sir?" asked the GDI captain. "If these locations are inaccurate, we're driving our people into hell."  
"I'm sure." said the general. "I fully believe that this information is accurate."

"Ok, sir." said the captain, sighing. "I'll get the pilots ready.

A few minutes later, a squadron of GDI Juggernaut artillery pieces manoeuvred into position, and deployed their stabilisers, and began to fire their shells towards what seemed to be an empty plateau.

The first artillery shells struck nothing. Then explosions began to ring through the air, and a ripple followed them, and then one of the famed Obelisks of Nod began to show up, explosions detonating throughout it's structure, as the artillery destroyed it.

The Juggernauts rotated, and began to fire at another part of the 'empty' plateau.

* * *

"What the hell is happening?" growled General Andrei. He turned to some of his elite guard. "Find Andrew, get him to mobilise the troops, get Adam, get the tank divisions prepared. Find Bethany, get her to lead the troops in a counterattack." he said, making up his plan as he went. "What are you waiting for?" he shouted.

The soldiers ran out of the room.

"What the hell is going on…" wondered the General to himself. "How do they know exactly where to target?" he said, watching through one of the strategic viewers as another Obelisk, supposedly hidden from view, was destroyed by unerring artillery fire.

* * *

"Andrei." said Andrew, throwing a half-hearted salute with his good hand. "What's going on?" he asked.  
"I wish I knew." said Andrei. He turned to the guards by the door.  
"Where are Adam and Bethany?"  
"We couldn't find them, sir." they said. "We searched everywhere there was reason for them to be, but we couldn't find either of them."  
"Fine." said Andrei, and he turned away.

Facts connected in his mind like lightning.

There must be a spy amongst them.

No reason to say anything, it could be Andrew… let's see… how did they arrive…

* * *

It's a little known fact among most civilians that over ninety percent of Nod leadership is in fact traitors from GDI. Nod recruits from those who are unhappy. Most strategists are snapped up by GDI early, and offered deals that they would never wish to break, leaving very few naturals for Nod. But some people are greedy, and all too happy to turn traitor, for Nods far more than ample bank accounts.

* * *

_Andrew scowled. During the battle with CABAL, his hand had been crushed by a Cyborg. But that wasn't the worst. They'd had the nerve to send him to an obscure research and resource gathering area as part of the garrison._

_But no matter. He was getting out of here. Today._

_* * *_

"_Andrew? Sir?" asked one of the officers. "We have reports of Nod soldiers nearby."  
"Send out patrols to check on them." he replied. The officer nodded, and left._

_Andrew walked out of the room, heading towards the armoury. _

_He arrived quickly, and opened the door._

_Inside, he quickly found what he was looking for._

_* * *_

_An explosion rang out, a plume of fire spraying into the sky.  
Then a second.  
And then a third._

_An Orca Fighter began to fly out of the base's military hangar_

_Another series of explosions rippled through the Tiberium Refineries, and the Silos where the supplies were kept._

_Another explosion. Larger than all the others, it rang out from the refineries with a tremendous noise, the buildings tearing themselves apart, the force of the detonation all but levelling the base, throwing the Orca away on the gust of wind created. _

_Green fumes, vaporised Tiberium, began to come from the destroyed silo, and refineries. The acidic gas ate through the structure of the already damaged base structures, until they collapsed from lack of support. _

_Inside the Orca, Andrew Smiths smiled. Revenge and victory for his new allegiance with just a few well placed explosives._

_Nod would be honoured to have someone of his skill. _

_They could probably fix his hand better than those GDI idiots as well._

* * *

Could be… thought Andrei. After all, it just _happened_ that on the day it had happened, the base was all but empty.

What about Adam?  
Come to think of it, hadn't he and Bethany come in together?

* * *

_Adam smiled. The GDI force he was in charge of had accepted without complaint his suggestion that they travel down this dangerous area. Of course, dangerous didn't really cut it. What he knew and they didn't was that this road was lined with nod forces, and at the end of it was the largest base in the area._

_The base had been alerted to the convoy and would destroy the GDI forces before they even got near._

_And Adam could help them._

_Adam looked sideways to the other member of his crew. Bethany Lyons. Now, he'd rather not kill her… what to do, what to do…_

_An explosion came, and screams started to come through the Comm. link. A lot of screams._

_Through the video links and the windows in the cockpit, Adam could see Stealth Tanks appearing from nowhere, bombarding the GDI convoy._

_Another Stealth Tank appeared out of nowhere. This one had larger missile pods than most._

_Shit._

_A rain of missiles shot out of the tank, most of them flying away, but a couple heading straight for Adam's cockpit._

_Fuck._

_The missile hit, smashing the front of the Titan into tiny fragments. The back half of the missile shattered, a cloud of tiny rockets appearing, barely longer than a sword, and easily as sharp._

_They turned in mid-air, flying towards the Titan. Some of them stabbed into the armour, others flying inside and laying waste to the electronics._

_One stabbed through Adam's chest, next to his heart._

_He coughed up blood, and reached for a Comm. link.  
"Hell, you idiot! I'm Adam Stones."  
There was garbled noise from the other side. Then a voice.  
"Sorry. Are you injured?"  
"Yes. Fucking idiot."_

_There was a slightly disparaging noise from the other side of the vehicle, and Adam looked around._

_He saw Bethany staring with a look of what might have been pity. There was a shard of metal embedded in one hand, utterly mangling it._

_She turned her head._

_There was another one there._

"_Hurry the fuck up!" shouted Adam into the Comm. link.  
"We can't."  
"Then I'll come to you." he said. He stood up, crying out in pain, and walked over to Bethany. He saw another shard in her leg._

_He picked her up, and climbed down out of the shards of the vehicle._

_Walking slowly and painfully to the nearest Nod vehicle, Adam left GDI._

_Both Adam and Bethany needed extensive cybernetics._

* * *

Possible. Couldn't be Bethany, of course. Adam had insisted on having her kept alive, but the scientists were forced to change her allegiance. It was well known that the two were a couple. Andrei disapproved. Using forced amnesia to force something like that…

"Sir!" shouted one of the guards, interrupting his thoughts.  
"What?" he snapped.

"The GDI forces are inside the perimeter. They've walked right through the laser grids with no losses."  
"What?!" shouted Andrei, standing up.  
"The lasers are down, sir."  
"Where are Andrew, Adam and Bethany?"  
"We don't know."  
Andrei growled, and fished in a pocket, bringing out a small handheld computer. Pressing a few buttons, a trio of flashing lights appeared, all close together.

"They're in the armoury." he said.

* * *

Andrew ran around the corner.

The lasers were down.

He had to do something.

_The lasers were down._

This was very bad for the Nod forces.

_**The lasers were down.**_

* * *

Adam ran around the corner.

The lasers were down.

Something needed to be done.

_The lasers were down._

The Nod base was in big trouble if they weren't reactivated.

_**The lasers were down.**_

* * *

The two ran around opposite corners, and greeted each other.  
"Brother."  
"Brother."

Adam and Andrew each took a weapon from their holster.

"Traitor." they both said.

* * *

_ACTUALLY TH£E END this time. No more italic flashbacks here, no sirree!_

_Anyhoo. The Shard Pattern Stealth Tank is mine.  
Brother is a Nod term. It is the Brotherhood, after all.  
Sooo… who's the spy? Is it Adam, or Andrew? Or is Andrei wrong, and it's Bethany?_

_Or I could be messing with you. Could be Andrei._

_Nah, not Andrei. But the other three.  
REVIEW, PLEASE!_


	3. Chapter 3: Discovery

_Hey! I'll probably be giving away the spy. Enjoy._

Disclaimer-I still don't own C&C. Shame that.

Chapter 3-Discovery

"You can't escape." said Andrew. "I won't allow you out of here."  
"You can't stop me. The titans of the Steel Talons. They come." said Adam.

"I don't trust either of you." said Bethany, pointing a pistol at each of them,=. "Which one of you is working for GDI?"  
"Bethany?" said Andrew.

Adam turned, pointing his weapon at a console behind him.  
"I'm sorry, Bethany. This is my fault. But I can fix it."

He fired, a flash of blue light slamming into the complex electronics of the console, burning into the depths, destroying the circuitry.

Bethany collapsed onto the floor.

"Sorry." said Adam, almost to himself. Then he turned and fired a second pulse at Andrew. It caught him on his natural arm, burning it, setting his uniform on fire, and making him drop his weapon.

Adam stepped over to him quickly, and hit him with the butt of his weapon, putting out the flames.

He sighed.

"I'm sorry." he said.

He walked away, picking Bethany up, wincing and holding her over his back.

He went further into the armoury.

"One last place to go…"

* * *

"Adam. I'm glad to have you back." said the GDI general.  
"It's good to be back, sir." said Adam.

Behind him, the Nod base detonated in a huge cloud of green tiberium gas.

* * *

"Ok, well everything looks fine, it's self sustaining." said the GDI scientist.

Adam was lying on a bed in a medical room.

It was clearly visible just how much damage had been caused to him.

There was a soft metal fused with his skin, over his heart. It covered most of his chest, curving round over his back as well.

Underneath there were complex machines to regulate his heart and keep him alive, and able to operate as if nothing else had ever happened. It was charged by his own body heat, and actually provided an excess of energy.

More than once Adam had connected that to a Pulse weapon for an overcharged shot.

"Yes, as long as you check it occasionally." said the scientist.

"How's Bethany?" asked Adam, anxious.  
"…fine, but she hasn't woken up. It's common for those who have had an extensive shock."

Bethany had had a cybernetic implant in her brain, affecting her memory and decision making, persuading her to join Nod of her own free will. Adam had destroyed the circuitry controlling this implant. The backlash had knocked her out.

It was almost a week.

"You know, Adam… she might not wake up."  
"She WILL wake up." said Adam.

She was in the room, lying inside another bed.

She looked very calm, sleeping, her long hair like a halo around her head.

"She will." said Adam weakly, looking at her.

_Aw…_


End file.
